Manganese oxide hydrate, .alpha.-MnO(OH), also known as groutit, may be prepared by the chemical or electrochemical reduction of .gamma.-manganese dioxide, according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,427,128. The crystal structure of groutit has been described by Collin and Lipscomb in Acta Cryst., Vol. 2, pp. 104-106 (1949).
C. Montemartini and E. Vernazza in Industria Chimica, volume 7, pages 557-82 (1932) describe the decomposition of manganese (II) nitrite with water to yield manganese (II) hydroxide, which further reacts to form Mn.sub.2 O.sub.3.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,217 manganese (II) hydroxide may be oxidized to form MnOOH. The MnOOH product may then be air-oxidized to form manganese dioxide. However, this process has the disadvantage of being very time-consuming.